The subject matter described and/or illustrated herein relates generally to electroplating systems, and, more particularly, to electroplating systems having plating wheels.
Plated components are used in a wide variety of applications. For example, plated contacts and conductors are used in electrical connectors and other electronic components. Electroplating is one example of a plating process used to plate conductive workpieces with a layer of material, such as a metal. Electroplating uses electrical current to reduce cations of the desired plate material from an electroplating solution and coat the workpiece with the plate material. Some electroplating systems use a plating wheel to distribute the electroplating solution onto the workpiece. The plating wheel includes a cylindrical wall that extends about a circumference of the plating wheel and an interior chamber that holds the electroplating solution. The cylindrical wall includes one or more openings that fluidly communicate with the interior chamber. As the plating wheel rotates, the electroplating solution is sprayed through the opening(s) onto the workpiece.
At least some known plating wheels include a mask for shielding non-plating areas of the workpiece where plating is not desired. Specifically, the mask is intended to prevent the electroplating solution from wetting the non-plating areas by shielding the non-plating areas from the electroplating solution. The mask includes one or more openings that allow the electroplating solution to pass through the mask onto plating areas of the workpiece where plating is desired. Known masks for plating wheels include a side that engages an exterior face of the cylindrical wall of the wheel and an opposite side that engages the workpiece. The mask is thereby sandwiched between the exterior face of the cylindrical wall and the workpiece. However, the mask may not adequately seal against the workpiece, which may enable the electroplating solution to wick between the mask and the non-plating areas of the workpiece. Contact between the electroplating solution and the non-plating areas may undesirably plate such areas with the plating material. Moreover, known plating wheels can only plate from one side of the workpiece at a time. To plate from the opposite side of the workpiece, a second plating wheel is arranged on the opposite side of the workpiece. The second plating wheel adds another component to the electroplating systems and may increase cost, complexity, and/or difficulty of plating the workpiece. In alternative to the second plating wheel, the workpiece is plated in two separate operations. Specifically, the workpiece is first plated on one side using the plating wheel thereafter flipped over to plate the opposite side of the workpiece using the same plating wheel. Plating the workpiece in two separate operations using the same plating wheel may increase plating time, cost, complexity, and/or difficulty of plating the workpiece.